Fairfield crime stats not what they seem

Published 3:07 pm, Tuesday, February 18, 2014

In lauding a decline in violent crime in Fairfield, the Fairfield Police Department very conveniently ignored that fact that robbery, by its very definition in the law, is violent crime. Robberies in Fairfield rose from 11 in 2012 to 16 in 2013.

Overall violent crime is historically relatively low in Fairfield bouncing between two to three dozen incidents per year according to the Uniform Crime Reports compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice. There does not appear to be a statistically significant trend -- up or down -- in the last ten years in violent crime in Fairfield, although every violent crime is significant on its own.

The recent 33 percent increase in the robbery component of violent crime in Fairfield may or may not be a trend. One year of data does not a trend make.

The FPD's attempt to declassify robbery as a violent crime, though, is just more bad news for the citizenry on the quality and performance problems at Fairfield Police.